Before his master-class in defeating Juan Manuel Marquez, Floyd Mayweather had appeared to have got himself for once into a fight he was liable to lose, when he accepted the challenge thrown down by MMA when they teasingly scheduled their own PPV card on the same night.
Even within the impenetrable haven that is the Mayweather ego, there must have been room for doubt that the big PPV money laid out for his two fights with Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton was generated by the constituencies of his two popular opponents, and not by his now undeniable fistic genius.
It was thought pre-fight that Marquez would bring a Mexican following, but that PPV sales would largely be dependant upon the curiosity of Mayweather’s return to action after a two year lay-off. In most circles the wise shook their heads, and questioned whether Mayweather’s safety-first skills were enough to put bums on seats, and with the emerging popularity of MMA in direct conflict The Pretty Boy appeared to be heading for a fall.
Not so. Mayweather vs. Marquez pulled in over a million buys, and $52 million in revenue. UFC 103 on the other hand, struggled to reach 400,000. Mayweather of course delivered a scintillating performance, virtually shutting out his smaller opponent over 12 rounds.
The question is: who was watching and why? Are there enough pugilistic aficionados tuning in to salivate over the sublime but generally passive skills of Floyd Junior? Or, did the excellent HBO series 24/7 so enrapture the general public with the Mayweather family soap opera that they (the public) couldn’t help but tune into the next installment (the fight)?
Perhaps public curiosity was at fever pitch once Marquez admitted to recycling his own urine, and they tuned in to see just how a urine-fuelled athlete performed?
Of course, the answer is probably a good deal simpler – and probably not great news for Floyd on a personal level, but wonderful news for his bank balance – that everyone tuned in to see him knocked on his backside. The Mayweather persona is to the public psyche what nails are to a chalkboard – discordant, grating, cringe-worthy. All the posturing, the self-aggrandizement, the preening about money and fame – all of it adds up to a pantomime bad guy who everyone wants to see brought down a peg.
Not that Floyd will mind while he’s enjoying easy nights like the one Marquez allowed him (on three scorecards, Mayweather won 33 of 36 rounds). In fact, the people around Mayweather would have us believe that he plays the villain at fight-time to up the stakes, and that the rest of the time he’s a thoroughly nice guy.
That would be believable were it not for his mob-like entourage – the snake-like Leonard Ellerbe, his recently re-assimilated father and agent provocateur Floyd Senior, and the desperately unpleasant chief trainer Uncle Roger: all of whom have far too much to say about too little and generally make unmitigated fools of themselves in the process.
It was interesting that in this latest 24/7, the third that Mayweather has participated in, he was filmed “giving back to his community” by handing out food parcels from the back of a truck to the Vegas homeless – something we were told he does often – whilst the poor unfortunates milled around with a quizzical look on their faces wondering who the hell he was.
Clearly the Mayweather camp had been struck by Manny Pacquiao’s popularity when he did exactly the same thing during his De La Hoya 24/7, and they wanted a piece of that popularity. Later in the same episode, Mayweather is seen returning to form by flashing a large wad of dollars to camera and boasting unabashedly about his wealth. It seemed strange that Mayweather had waited this long in his 24/7 career to show his “caring” side?
Still, whatever we think of Floyd Mayweather, JR., the human being, no-one can deny the quality of PBF the fighter. It would be heart-warming for those of us who love boxing if we could say that his popularity at the box office was a recognition of his qualities as a pugilist, but that would be too Disney. Even Dana White, the UFC President when reflecting on his organization’s 400,000 buys, conceded that Mayweather had exceeded all expectations, without hazarding a guess as to why:
“Bottom line, we did a good number and we still got our asses kicked”, said White. “What they did was phenomenal and I’m happy for them.”
After sober analysis, White may well conclude that boxing should not crow over this small victory for too long – after all the Golden Boy/Mayweather promotion benefited from not only the 24/7 exposure but plenty of column inches in the print media, something his still fledgling shows have yet to enjoy. If he can find a villain of the piece as nasty as Mayweather, and drum up enough public interest in getting that guy a beating, then the numbers just might be reversed.
Meanwhile, the Prettty Boy can shout from the rooftops that he’s now been involved in three of the biggest selling fights in history – De La Hoya/Mayweather (2.4 million buys), Hatton/Mayweather (900,000) and now Marquez/Mayweather (1 million).
Perhaps those figures will be enough in themselves to drag the respective handlers of Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to the negotiating table. Bob Arum, who handles Pacquiao, has long maintained that the little Filipino is the pay-per-view draw in a matchup with Floyd, but might now have to re-evaluate, and make some compromises if, as everyone expects, Mayweather/Pacquiao is to break all financial records sometime in 2010.
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